Face Masks

Masks are usually a fun combination of minerals, vitamins, and fruit extracts such as cucumber, and they tend to consist of a creamy or thick paste that you apply to your face, or a moist cloth that you lay over your face.

By leaving these cream, clay, and mud mixtures on our faces for a certain period of time, we give the minerals and other elements time to work their magic on the skin and remove dirt, excess oil, dead skin cells, left over make-up, and other impurities.

Facial masks work by drawing impurities up to the skin’s surface, and then when you rinse or peel the mask off, you also rinse away the dirt and oil that were clogging your pores.

Many masks contain butylene glycol, which acts like a solvent and helps your skin to absorb the nourishing ingredients in the face mask, while leaving most of it on the surface of your skin.

Overall, though, there are three groups of ingredients to look out for that have different functions. Exfoliants such as glycolic, lactic, and retinol work to unclog and remove dead skin cells. Antioxidants such as vitamin C help to protect the skin from damage and extra wrinkles and smooth skin tone. And peptides help with promoting skin firmness by working on collagen.

Charcoal face masks

Charcoal masks fall into the exfoliant category, where their main goal is to help remove oil and build-up in the pores.

Charcoal is porous, which helps it to act a bit like a strong magnet and suck out any gunk on your skin, including blackheads.

Because it works like that, do avoid charcoal masks if you have dry or easily irritated skin, and take good advantage of them if you have oily skin. Only use them once a week, to avoid causing unnecessary dryness.

Try Dr Organic Charcoal Face Mask which works effectively in helping to cleanse the skin of excess oil and impurities. Its activated charcoal along with a blend of bioactive and organic extracts such as Aloe Vera Juice and China Clay helps to absorb and then purify the skin from dirt and oil.

Turmeric face masks

Turmeric can be used to help with combating acne-causing bacteria well as to prevent skin conditions that may be caused by sensitive and irritated skin.

Try Ayumi Turmeric Face Mask. It contains Kaolin clay, to draw out impurities as well as Papaya and Argan Oil to enhance the complexion and improve skin’s texture. Meaning your skin will be left feeling supple, energised and conditioned.

Aside from charcoal and turmeric masks, there are a range of different masks that are designed to perform different functions.

Bentonite, for example, is often used on oily and acne-prone skin. It helps by making the skin appear tighter and can combat unwanted bacteria.

Holland & Barrett offer a Dr Organic Guava Gel Face Mask which uses the vitamin C in guava to replenish and hydrate the skin. They also sell a Miaderma Eczema & Psoriasis Intensive Cream Mask which aims to calm the skin and alleviate things like itching, redness, scaling, and long-lasting dry skin.